Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Spinach Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spinach
Pick the spinach.
Wash the spinach thoroughly.
Boil the spinach in a large pan of fast boiling water for 5 minutes.
Drain the spinach.
Press out the water.
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and mix smoothly.
Stir in the milk and water.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the spinach, the salt and the onion.
Cover the pot and simmer until the spinach is soft.
Remove from heat.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Rinse the saucepan.
Return the spinach to the saucepan.
Add enough milk to achieve a thick, cream-like consistency.
Reboil the mixture.
Season to taste.
Stir in the cream.
Serve hot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Spinach + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,336 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spinach
- Forms the bulk of the soup and gives it its body and green colour once puréed.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth base that gives the soup body.
- Butter
- Carries flavour and adds richness while cooking the flour into a roux.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and gives the soup a creamy texture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel at the end.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pressing the cooked spinach through a fine sieve breaks down its fibres and removes stringy pieces, giving the smooth texture the soup depends on.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, butter, flour, milk, cream):
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, butter, flour, milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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